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Tuesday, September 7, 2010

It’s that time of year again. Starting on the first Thursday after
Labour Day, Toronto
plays host to the largest public film festival in the
world, the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF). Some
people would even rank it as the top film festival in the world, above the
revered Cannes
festival. Cannes
isn’t a public festival and has things working against it such as its earlier,
pre-summer timing. Sundance, Venice and Berlin may be more
famous, but are smaller and have less influence in the industry. Toronto does many things
well and keeps trying to improve even further.

Some have complained that TIFF has grown too
large or elitist. These complaints take place every year and while some have a
degree of validity, the usual gripes about festival’s size and programming are getting
tired. No matter what they do, some will object. The fact is that the festival has always been
large, but has maintained an excellent balance of artful Hollywood
movies with small independent, foreign, Canadian, experimental, documentary,
genre films, and other categories. The Hollywood
movies benefit all the others by drawing attention to
them.

With a schedule of 339 films (258 features, 81 shorts), the festival is
going to be an entirely different experience for
everyone. Some people will primarily see galas, whereas others choose
films based on region, filmmaker or subject matter (e.g. romance, period
pieces, gay films, horror, etc.). Some prefer to
see films that they know do not have distribution and they might never
otherwise get a chance to see. Others, such as
myself, like to throw caution to
the wind and prefer to not know too much about the films ahead of time.
We simply trust the festival’s outstanding programmers; even if a film isn’t to our taste, it will be interesting and worth watching and
discussing. I would strongly recommend seeing at least a few films that
you might not ordinarily choose, since the best way to
try something new is with the savvy, sold-out audiences of TIFF.

Here are some other tips to make your TIFF
experience a pleasurable one.Buy your ticket packages and/or passes as early as possible.
Keep this in mind for the future. Buying single tickets just before or
during the festival means you pay $19.69 a ticket ($17.04 for students and
seniors), which is down from last year’s prices of $19.76 ($17.14).
Premium screenings are $38.27 ($19.03 for students and seniors). But if
you buy a package or pass, the cost goes down considerably. These are
released first to Visa cardholders - Visa is a TIFF sponsor - then to everyone else in
early July. This year, there were more types of packages available than
ever, many of them bringing the price well under $10 per ticket. But you had to
move fast as many sold out quickly.

Study the lineup of films as early as possible
Trying to study a line-up of hundreds of films all at
once is tough to manage, so spread it out if you
can. Keep an ear to the ground as to
what films were hits in Sundance in January and in Cannes in May. The hits from these
festivals often show at TIFF if they haven’t gotten a
theatrical release yet. Then TIFF has press conference(s) in
July toannounce the opening night film and a good number of other films. Throughout the
summer, they continue announcing titles until the schedule is complete in late August. You can follow the progress of the schedule here or at the TIFF website (http://tiff.net/).

Make sure you hand in your booklet with your film choices before the
deadline
The convoluted process to select films has evolved out
of necessity because of the festival’s popularity. It goes like this: once you have a pass
or package, you’ll be required to make your selections
marked in a schedule booklet according to your first and
second choices. They try to fill as many of your
first choices as possible, before filling your second choices. If they
still owe you some tickets, they will give you vouchers redeemable for films during the festival. As long as you get your selection booklet in
before the announced deadline, you’re okay. You’ll be told what box
number your envelope was placed in. A random draw is held to
select which box will be the first to have its orders
filled. Then they go in ascending order until they reach the top, and
only then continue from the bottom. So there is absolutely no advantage to getting your choices in early and being in Box 1.

Don’t fret if you don’t get all your choices
With this randomized process, you will likely only get all of your choices if
you were in the box chosen or the boxes immediately following. It also
depends on your choices and your times. Hollywood
movies and ones with big names tend to sell out
quickly. Weekend and nighttime screenings sell out before weekday
screenings. But getting all your choices is no guarantee that you’ll
enjoy the festival any more than if you make an arbitrary selection. We
all know that popular and good are not the same thing. Even in a festival
where the programming is less commercial, this can still hold true.

You can exchange tickets before single tickets go on sale
If you didn’t get all of your choices or you want to
exchange some of them, you’ll have that chance a few days before the single
tickets open up to the public. But the lineup will
likely be long. If you didn’t use up all the tickets on your pass or
package, you can look at the posted schedule outside the box offices that let
you know what films are sold out and which still have available tickets.
You may have to make your remaining choices based on
availability and scheduling.

Get help if you have any questions
Feel free to call the festival itself with any
questions you may have at 416-968-FILM or 1-877-968-FILM). But if at all
possible, find someone who has done it before and get his or her advice.
It can seem very intimidating but once you’ve done it, it becomes easy.

Pace yourself
If you’re a first-timer at TIFF, you will probably only be able to handle 6-12 movies over the festival. This year, it
returns to being 11 days long (September 9-19) after some years of running only
10 days. As you become more experienced with the festival, you can gradually
increase your film count to around 30 or more, or several
films a day. I’ve met some hardcore film fanatics who catch as much as
humanly possible, starting with the earliest 9am screening and going straight
until the Midnight Madness screening every day. Even I couldn’t handle
that and I wouldn’t recommend it to festival novices.

Don’t schedule your films too close together
You should give yourself at minimum a half-hour between screenings, but more
comfortably an hour to be safe. The theatres are
all fairly close together so it’s reasonably convenient. But the traffic
in downtown Toronto
can be tricky, especially at rush hour. It’s possible to
walk or take transit (bus or subway), but biking is better and also the fastest
means of transportation. Driving is more trouble than it’s worth.
The films generally start on time, but introductions, announcements, sponsor
trailers (they don’t show ads and/or coming attraction trailers) and frequent
Q&A sessions with filmmakers, cast or crew can mean the timing given in the
schedule is just a guide. And there are always lineups.

Be prepared to wait in
line
Or “wait on line” as they say in New
York. Almost every screening will sell out, so
of course there will be long line-ups. One line will be for
ticket-holders and pass-holders, and the other line is for rush tickets.
There are always some tickets available on the day. You will want to join your line as early as possible,
especially if you want a good seat or if you want multiple seats
together. Lining up isn’t such a terrible thing though; it’s actually
some of the most fun you’ll have at the festival. Everyone is very
friendly and eagerly shares info about films or festival stories. Bring a
collapsible chair if you don’t feel like standing the whole time.

Choose seats knowing that the theatre will almost certainly sell
out.
There’s no point in spacing yourselves out like you normally would at a lazy
afternoon matinee. Most screenings at TIFF sell out
completely. Seats that aren’t filled 15 minutes prior to
the start of the film will be sold to people waiting in
the rush line. If you’re claustrophobic or like to
leave quickly, arrive early enough that you can get an aisle seat.

Don’t save seats for friends who are late.
Screenings start on time and as mentioned, empty seats are counted so that
they can sell rush tickets. If your friends are late, their ticket might
not be honoured since tickets state clearly that they are only good until 15
minutes before the screening time. If they are in the rush line, your
saving seats will actually hamper them from getting in since those seats won’t
get counted and there will be fewer rush tickets sold. Having a jacket on an
empty seat during the screening is shameful proof that you kept out someone
from the rush line.

If in doubt, go to the
washroom before the screening.
Obviously, it’s in your interest so that you don’t miss anything from the
movie. But in a packed theatre, others will benefit too from not being interrupted
during the screening.

Be courteous to those around you

Don’t ever use your phone during a screening, whether for talking, texting or
just letting it ring. Just don’t. Refrain from talking or whispering with your
seatmates. Don’t wear too much perfume. Remember, you're sharing the theatre space with many others.

If there’s a Q&A, stay and ask good questions
One of the great things about a festival is or course seeing the people who
made the film and having the opportunity to interact with
them immediately after seeing the film. Galas usually bring out more stars
and they participate in the intro, so they often forego the Q&A. But
many other screenings will have someone from the film present the screening and
then stay for a Q&A afterwards. Keep your questions short, since the
programmer with the guest will repeat it into his or her microphone.
Avoid the standard, boring questions (What was your inspiration? your budget?
your shooting schedule?) and think of something original that has more to do with the uniqueness of the film you just saw.

If you want, have a pen and a compact camera with you
Of course, you’re forbidden to use a camera during the
screening itself, but before and after the film it’s fine. After the
Q&A, there is usually a brief window where you may approach someone like a
director or actor and take a photo or ask for an autograph. Usually, they
will have handlers trying to hustle them to
another event or a press conference, though, so you have to
be quick.

Be polite
You never know who you’re next to. Many people
from the film or in the industry will be attending the screenings, so you don’t
want to be in the position of unwittingly bad-mouthing a
film near its director or distributor or anything like that. When you
meet celebrities, be respectful. Canadians generally are and that’s one
of the reasons for the success of TIFF. We wouldn’t
like hordes of strangers demanding stuff from us, yet we expect that from
celebrities. Go figure. Just take it easy and be reasonable and considerate. Celebrities
often prefer a photo with you or a personalized autograph instead of a generic signing
since they know it won’t be sold or exploited.

Plan your meals
If you’re seeing multiple films, it’s not a bad idea to bring lunch with you. It’s best to have these between films while waiting in line, but eating in some theatres can be done if you’re discreet. Theatres don’t like when you bring your own food obviously, but during the festival, the staff is too busy to care. You can get cheap sandwiches at several Vietnamese shops just north of Spadina and Dundas for $1.75 each ($2.25 for large, ie. more meat). For cheap all-you-can eat dining, Grill Time at 454 Yonge St. at College (close to the Ryerson and AMC Theatres) is $7.99 every day at lunch. For finer dining, many restaurants on King St. from Bathurst to University are excellent. Lee (603 King St. W.) features the exotic cuisine of legendary Chef Susur Lee – check out my interview with him in the latest issue of Ricepaper Magazine.

Dress comfortably
Check the weather every day, and know the long-range forecast. You’ll
see that Toronto weather in the fall is similar toNew York or Chicago — usually quite
hot. September in Toronto
began with a heat wave, followed immediately by a cold snap. The forecast for
the rest of the festival looks to be mostly sunny but a bit cool with daytime highs
between 20°C and 24°C (68°F to 75°F). Wear comfortable shoes, because you’ll be
on your feet quite a bit. You may
want to have some more formal attire available for the evening
events.

Get to know the new TIFF neighbourhood
The festival core no longer based near Yorkville but has migrated south
to the Bell Lightbox at King and John, and the adjacent Hyatt Regency hotel. The surrounding neighbourhood has a very different vibe but
has just as much to offer. It's just as well too, since Bloor Street is under major construction from Yonge to Queen's Park.

Check out some free stuffTIFF has expanded it’s lineup of free screenings and is
having a block party to celebrate the opening of the new Bell Lightbox
Other folks try to unofficially piggyback off the success
of TIFF by scheduling free events during the festival,
e.g. a film that didn’t make the festival might have a free screening to generate interest. Sometimes they’ll pass out info for
things like this at the lineups or other gatherings of TIFF
patrons. Various companies will often pass out free samples of
their wares (food, candy, coffee, beauty products, etc.) to
people in the lineups.

If you’re in the industry, make sure
you have plenty of business cards

Have a whole lot of them. You’d be amazed how quickly they go. You’ll also
collect quite a few yourself. Make sure you follow up with each of them soon
after the festival or you risk losing that contact.

Enjoy some late night drinks
Some bars have extended hours until 4am during the festival.
Though they will be still be scaled back this year because of the economy, many films,
production companies and studios will have big parties. Some consider the
parties to be decadent but they are vital for business
and are not usually paid for by the festival but by the film companies.
Usually you need to be in the industry or have a
connection. But don’t call up friends who you never otherwise speak to and expect that you’ll be a priority. Sometimes you
can get in just by being friendly to the right
people. It never hurts to be nice. And never pay for a TIFF party - if there's an entry fee, then it's not a real TIFF party.

Know your limits
Try to be well rested before the festival
starts. It’s hard to keep up with all the films and
various other events packed into such a short time frame. I’ve gone
overboard before and find I start to fall asleep during
some screenings, even ones I’m excited about. I found that I’d always start to get sick towards the end of the festival. Last year, I
took a regimen of Cold F/X and managed to avoid becoming sick for the first time at TIFF.

Volunteer, if you have the time
Volunteers for the festival get one or sometimes two vouchers for each shift
that they do. Vouchers are good for any screening during the festival,
including galas and press/industry screenings. If you can, you can
volunteer for many of the shifts before the festival (organizing, moving
projectors, stuffing envelopes, translating, etc.) so that you are free to watch films when the festival itself begins.

Vote wisely with your Audience Choice ballots
Though TIFF is a non-competitive festival, there are a
number of small awards such as the People’s Choice Award. Past People’s
Choice Award winners have gone on to great success with
other awards including the Oscars, e.g. American Beauty and Slumdog Millionaire. So the industry pays close attention to
the smart choices of the TIFF audience. Last year,
they introduced separate People’s Choice Awards for Documentary and Midnight
Madness. The award winners are announced on the last day, in time for the
free screening of the general Audience Award winner at the Elgin Theatre on the
closing night.